


A Friend and A Lover Divine

by Toongrrl1990



Series: Becky and Joyce are the real thing [3]
Category: Bridget Jones (Movies), Bridget Jones's Diary - All Media Types, Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding, Mad Men
Genre: 1960s, 1970s, Curvy Bridget, Drabble, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Female Friendship, Friendship/Love, Magical Realism, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-01-07 06:05:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toongrrl1990/pseuds/Toongrrl1990
Summary: What happened to Peggy, Bridget, Stan, and Mark after the wedding between Joyce and Becky? What did they discuss?Title adapted after a lyric from Howard Jones's "Everlasting Love"





	1. She Needed Someone with an Interior Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for being patient, with a new job and the loss of my boyfriend combined with other stresses in my life, it's been a drag.

_He wasn't looking for a pretty face_

_She wasn't searching for the latest style_

_He didn't want someone who walked straight off the TV_

_She needed someone with an interior smile_

“What are you thinking about?” asked Peggy, her smile crinkling in amusement. It was the day after the union of her dear friend Joyce Ramsey to the much younger (young enough to be Joyce’s granddaughter, practically) albeit very talented Rebecca Gillies and Peggy was having coffee and pastries with her new (and young enough to be her daughter) friend Bridget Jones. The younger blonde woman smiled back at her, with a bit of chocolate at the right hand corner of her eternally pink mouth, and admitted “I was wondering about how you and Stan became a couple and weather me and Mark shall ever mature in that manner. I sometimes feel I cannot fit into Mark’s world: I can’t speak Latin, I’m not clever, my legs only come up to here” as she motioned to her hips “I possess a bottom the size of Brazil and I possess mad hair and only went to Bangor University.” “You went to University?” asked Peggy, impressed and somewhat in jest, “First of all, you have a terrific bottom, some of the guys I worked with would salute that and you’re very accomplished and beautiful and sweet and furthermore, I went to Miss Deaver’s Secretarial School not to college like Stan or Megan or Joan did and look at me!” Peggy motioned to her conservative albeit well-tailored outfit from Lord & Taylor, “You are still a young woman and have so much to offer the world,” Peggy stopped to take a sip of her coffee and eat her chocolate croissant. “You should have seen me when I started working in advertising,” remarked Peggy plucking out a photo of herself, Bridget took the photo and noticed a much younger Peggy Rizzo with horrendous 1950s fringe and ponytail. While the young woman in the photo was very pretty with her bright eyes sparkling even in the black and white image, her total appearance begged for intervention, Bridget could feel her mother Pam crowing about “getting her colors done” and the like. Bridget smiled: “You still have not answered my question Mrs. Rizzo.” Peggy smiled, “How much time do you have?”


	2. This Vacancy He Meant to Permanently Fill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark and Stan start to talk about Stan meeting Peggy.

“Spit it out Darcy, you know you wanna tell me what’s on your mind,” teased Stan Rizzo as he chuckled and stroked his gray beard at the younger and clean-shaven Englishman. Mark suppressed a chuckle and replied “I was just thinking about myself and Bridget, yourself and Mrs. Rizzo…” “Peggy, you can talk to us and about us on a first-name basis,” corrected Stan.  “I was thinking about how we must have come together, I do not want to be too forward, but how did you and Margaret come to be as a couple? And how do you see me and Bridget?” Stan smirked at the “Margaret” mention of Peggy, “Well it’s a start,” he thought as he looked back on how reserved this younger man was when he met him and how it was clear that he and the blonde woman loved each other, but there needed to be a great amount of self-growth on their parts to help this relationship succeed, so far it has after several years of marriage and one child. “First off, as you personally know, as Bridget has recounted to me in the past about you two meeting as adults,” snarked Stan “I was a total ass who thought I was way out of her league…” “I don’t understand,” commented Mark. “Yes you do Mr. ‘Verbally Incontinent Spinster’,” Stan shot back and continued, “So it was a few months after I stopped working on the successful Johnson-Humphrey Presidential Campaign and I got hired to work at the new advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and I was strutting, I was checking all the women out and I was mentally judging them against my standards, influenced by _Playboy_ and Jayne Mansfield movies, when I was introduced to a cute little copywriter named Peggy, a girl I had to take down….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this wins the "Smuggest Bitch in the World Award".


	3. Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bridget and Peggy dish over being the Smuggest Bitch in the World, "getting liberated", Bunny Girls, and Boners.

_I need an everlasting love_

_I need a friend and a lover divine_

_An everlasting precious love_

**_Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time_ **

“She is tolerable I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me,” joked Bridget as Peggy recounted how Stan would make comments about her desirability and her sexual openness. Peggy chuckled, “Believe it or not, I actually cared a lot about whether men found me attractive then and it didn’t help when people would make comments, especially Joan when she tried to discuss some weight I gained with Keith. The irony is that me and Joan cared about the opinions of strange men that we would not even want to sneeze at, eventually we both outgrew it at some point.” Bridget looked thoughtful, thinking about her similar struggles, about the comments about how thin someone was or not or about her figure from “well-meaning” people who cared a lot about being fashionably slim made around her, yet they were either mere strangers she did not care for or were rather coarse relatives and friends of family who dressed like the back end of a bus, she is after all a child of “Cosmopolitan” culture. Peggy took the younger woman’s hand and gave her a consoling look, “It’s going to be okay, you are working on it and I noticed that you actually stood up to your Mother and your quote Uncle unquote Geoffrey and told Una where to stick her comments about your weight, you are making a ton of progress and I have to say, I don’t think I would have been as patient with them as you have,” Peggy smiled at her and jokingly made a motion in the shape of an hourglass figure to Bridget, who then laughed. “What did you do next?” asked Bridget and Peggy replied that “I decided to make him eat his words and that I was going to get “liberated”, I took my clothes off and started to do my work in the nude and challenged him to, and when he got down to his tighty-whiteys I saw that there was a significant growth, which he passed off as being leftover from the magazine, but I know the difference,” she smugly giggled. “I remember Mark being quite flustered when I showed up at a ‘do in a Bunny Girl suit, I couldn’t tell if he found me repulsive or not,” mentioned Bridget. “Likely gorgeous as all can get, not repulsive but…..” Peggy pressed her face close and made an exaggerated look “the smuggest bitch in the world!” Bridget and her burst out laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for being patient: I recently lost my boyfriend, after losing my job (I promise not my fault). I lost him to heart issues and it has been hard getting back into the fanfiction game. Thank you all for being patient.


	4. A Love to Push, Pull and Burst at the Seams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark and Stan talk about their views of women.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for being so patient! It has been hard to lose my boyfriend so I really appreciate it, believe me I poured my heart into this.

**_Back in the world of disposable emotion_ **

**_In the climate of temporary dreams_ **

**_He wasn't looking for a notch on his bedpost_ **

**_A love to push, pull and burst at the seams_ **

            “So you were looking to just make her another conquest?” inquired Mark and Stan had to reply “Yeah, I just had to really get on her nerves, yeah jerk move, but I never met a woman that took this job so seriously.” “Even in the campaign with President Johnson?” asked Mark “I imagine even in those days, there had to be several women passionately working with you in effort to get him elected President.” “Yeah there were several and kind to think of it, they did not really suffer any fools with me, I guess I never considered them. Peggy wasn’t fawning over me like some of the girls did, neither was Joan…” Stan trailed off. “You felt entitled to the attention of women, especially very attractive women,” theorized Mark. Stan chuckled, “I created a monster, you are not as dense as you look Darcy, yeah it really bugged me and I guess I was not used to a woman like her. She was a bit shocked that she was not invited to the Clio awards or even acknowledged for her ad work at all, I was not used to a woman thinking that she was entitled to attention for her hard work, most girls tend to jump over the moon over any recognition given to them in my experience.” Mark nodded, “Most of my female partners were very sharp-tongued and cold, even in their ambitions and relationships, and I had resigned myself to marrying for status and appearances. A merger marriage, of two successful and well-connected people, as my ex-partner Natasha would say,” he stated. “As Conrad Hilton, so that I heard from Don Draper said, ‘That is a match made in the boardroom’, if I had those standards I would not even had looked at the girls I was with even before Peggy,” Stan added thoughtfully “I dated some girls I met in bars, a nurse, and there was Peggy who was a Secretarial School graduate who worked her way up the career ladder and it sounded a lot like the marriage between Pete and Trudy Campbell, oops” the older man smirked. “I was in the Waldorf Astoria with Peggy and we were supposed to focus on Life Cereal but I wanted to lay down the bed and read _Playboy_ , she really gave it to me about looking at women who couldn’t look back at me and I zinged her about her feeling ashamed of her body, or she should” Mark reacted shocked “Mrs. Rizzo is an attractive woman.” Stan settled down, “Yes she is, but remember what a jackass I was: she then challenged me and stripped down to her underwear and nothing at all, daring me to do the same and I had experienced some growth that I said was left over from the magazine and retorted to calling her ‘the smuggest bitch in the world’ her response was about wanting to go out for lunch.” Mark smiled, thinking of how successful and creative the older woman was, how she understood him and encouraged him to do the work of opening up his vulnerabilities to Bridget, he wasn’t shocked of how Ms. Margaret Olson Rizzo was so confident and brave, willing to spell out a strange man’s less desirable qualities, not afraid of risking being disliked. He really hoped that he and Bridget would learn a lot from her, he was after all learning a lot about loosening up and enjoying life from Stan Rizzo along with opening up to Bridget.


	5. Give It Some Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy and Bridget meet the guys at the end

_I need an everlasting love_

_I need a friend and a lover divine_

_An everlasting precious love_

_Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time_

“I feel that isn’t all of your first year knowing him,” smirked Bridget “what else happened?” “Later that year, I was seriously dating Mr. Abe Drexler and I was getting ready for a presentation on Playtex’s plastic gloves, where my pitch was to emphasize how the product can protect your hands,” Peggy continued “I was a bit nervous and Stan offered me a massage, trying to get me to do some breathing exercises and then he kissed me, I told him off and after our pitch, I found out he let me make that pitch with lipstick on my teeth!” “Mark talking about knowing me since I ran around in his paddling pool with no clothes on!” “Was this when you two were children or now?” laughed Peggy, holding herself as she laughed at the idea of Mark and Bridget chasing each other around in their underwear….or nothing at all “Oh I wish I had a camera and was there at that moment.” “It was the first thing my Mum mentioned to Mark, when she re-introduced us as adults!” “That woman is too much,” laughed Peggy “Too much and I think I can see Joan firing her on the spot, throwing a model plane at her, or even she riding a lawn mower drunk.” “What?” asked Bridget “Other stories,” interjected Peggy. They then ran into Mark and Stan, where the men were both smirking at the women as if to say “You too?” Peggy smiled and gave an exaggerated look of annoyance, “Stan, I say we switch!”


	6. This is love worth waiting for

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy explains to Mark how she and Stan really became close.

_This is love worth waiting for_

_Something special, something pure_

“Well, Mrs. Rizzo, I had quite a conversation with your husband about how the two of you met,” Mark paused, eyeing Peggy’s amused expression. “Did he tell you about the time he let me start a presentation for Playtex with lipstick on my teeth?” Mark was still stunned from that information, “Yes, he mentioned that.” Mark was still puzzling over how the poised and confident older woman across from him, laying a solid yellow cotton tablecloth with patterns making out the State of California, on the tea table would ever have stained teeth. “As I told Bridget, you don’t start out in life walking, you have to crawl, trip, scurry, and stumble to get where you are; if you are doing things perfect, then you’re doing it wrong,” smiled Peggy “But I aced the presentation despite an executive licking his teeth at me, but Stan didn’t get together with me, I just became boyfriend and girlfriend with Abe. Then after they had to lay off several people from our office because we lost several big accounts, including American Tobacco, me and Stan were the only people working in Creative for a long while, until Ginsberg got hired and we had become very good friends.”


	7. An Everlasting Precious Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan and Bridget talk separation while marinading chicken for sancocho.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey thanks to everyone who has waited, it's been hard with his death and I am trying to get into employment again, currently training for one part-time position and awaiting calls for sub positions at a local school district. So thank you all for being patient. In addition, I am glad I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and can finish this story, maybe do some drabbles that I had festering in my head before I do anything big.

_I need an everlasting love_

_I need a friend and a lover divine_

**_An everlasting precious love_ **

_Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time_

_Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time_

“Okay Bridget, just mix the dry ingredients and you can work on the wet ingredients separately” instructed Stan. Bridget actually liked cooking or baking with Stan, finding him to be a patient teacher and even encouraging her to get a little messy, one time they were fixing marinade for the chicken used for Dominican-style Sancocho and while she panicked about forgetting the Adobo for the marinade mix, Stan assured her that it can be added while cooking and they’ll be adding chicken broth to the mix.

Right now they are preparing some Strawberry Bread, a particular favorite of the author Jane Austen and similar to Zucchini Bread, while preparing the stew again. Stan was good company, discussing music and the merits of Madonna and Petula Clark. Stan was very enchanted with Bridget, feeling close to her like a friend and a daughter figure who still requires guidance, and he even took Mark under his own wing, seeing that their relationship is similar to roses: beautiful and flourishing but requires plenty of maintenance and water in order for it to thrive and live. He looked forward to helping them grow as a couple, Peggy may deny it but she was also concerned: “Frankly, I don’t see those parents of theirs’s as very good influences.” Bridget’s mother sounded like a flighty, hypocritical, over-critical woman who probably influenced Bridget’s lower parts of her self-esteem and the father, while amusing, didn’t seem to do much to help the mother-daughter relationship or even provided a good role model for relationships; Mark’s father was very distant and was the one that enrolled his son into boarding school when he was thirteen and the mom, while kind and loving also as a mother-in-law, just seemed to stay in the background. There was a part of him, softened by years of marriage to Peggy and friendship with Ginzo and of raising children and now being a grandfather that hoped that he could help influence Mark and Bridget in some manner.

“Stan, have you ever been separated from Peggy?” asked Bridget, catching Stan by surprise. He was taken aback: “Come again?” Bridget cleared her throat, having to suppress her smug expression at finally having taken the nonplussed and cool Stan Rizzo aback, “To clarify, there was a brief time when me and Mark were separated, it was when I thought he was sleeping with Becky; so was there ever a time you and Peggy were separated?” Stan chuckled, at the thought of Sapphic and Loyal Becky and Faithful and Strait-laced Mark sleeping together behind Bridget’s back, “Well it was before me and her got together, when she accepted a Copy Chief position at Cutler Gleason and Chauogh, it bugged me that I haven’t really noticed how taken for granted she felt but man it killed me when she told off a client from Heinz Beans for being so unimaginative and cowardly.” Bridget thought, “Ummmm just like when I pitched advertising for a horror book to the writer of these sweet children’s books, my pitch was brilliant.” “No doubt about that darling, but after working  her ass off on Chevalier Blanc while the rest of us feasted on lobster Roger Sterling had flown in while working on Jaguar, she just had to leave and she did, while we celebrated landing Jaguar. Then I went to work, Creative’s pitches weren’t the same anymore, nothing was the same. I didn’t see her make her smirky looks or interject, no one to really laugh at my jokes or playfully tell me off, it was miserable; didn’t help that I would lose my cousin in Vietnam but then I ran into her at a release of a new Petula Clark record and we exchanged our office numbers, which was great because we both worked late.” Bridget smirked “And you two got to spend nights together” which led Stan to playfully aim a tea towel at her. “Come on, English Rose, Chef Zee says that 3 hours is good at the least for marinade.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Chef Zee and her recipe for Sancocho Dominicano (which I do with just chicken because my pot is too small and I can't handle all the fat) but it's a yummy way of eating your root veggies! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f15Zz27FNC8
> 
> Here is a recipe for Strawberry Nut Loaf on A Peek Into The Pantry (An American Girl fan blog featuring recipes from the stories and past eras) http://apeekintothepantry.blogspot.com/2019/07/addys-strawberry-nut-loaf.html  
> Also recipe for Zucchini Bread from the same site http://apeekintothepantry.blogspot.com/2016/06/julies-zucchini-bread.html
> 
> Petula Clark song I am referring to is a favorite of mine "Don't Sleep In The Subway", something I think that fits the relationships of Mark and Bridget (Peggy and Stan in the series finale too) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ISX9mW78Dw
> 
> I really feel that Peggy and Stan would really care about the younger couple involved.
> 
> A deleted scene from the first movie shows off Bridget's excellent pitching skills (but her timing and accuracy is off) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k04QJ3qGqk
> 
> Peggy can say something appealing about beans https://youtu.be/S1QdZgVTIB0?t=89


	8. Bitterness will die for sure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan and Peggy are getting ready to tell their vulnerabilities.

_This is love worth waiting for_

_Bitterness will die for sure_

_Something special, something pure_

_This is love worth waiting for_

_This is love worth waiting for_

_Bitterness will die for sure_

“Mark, I actually looked over research on you and Bridget and found you defended her after she got unfairly imprisoned in Thailand,” stated Peggy while scrolling on her smart phone “Bridget even told me how trying the separation was, so my question is, are you about to ask me if I have done anything to anger Stan or if I have turned down his overtures at first?” While she and Mark were arranging the DVDs they would be watching with their respective spouses; Mark was shocked but not surprised, after all Peggy Olson-Rizzo has shown herself to be quite a perceptive…and trustworthy woman. “Yes, in fact I am actually curious about that.”

“Bridget do you want me to tell you of the few times me and Peggy bared our souls to one another?” asked Stan. Ever curious, Bridget decided to take the bait, “Yes, I would appreciate that.” “Don’t look shocked honey, I know of you and Mark’s respective vulnerabilities, also you are not fat.”

In both rooms, the older halves took a deep breath and said “There was a lot of hurt feelings and bitterness, but it all passed and what helped was opening up.”


	9. Something special, Something pure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something different to shake things up.
> 
> Mark and Bridget get to see two intimate moments that really set things up for Stan and Peggy with dinner at the end.

_Something special, something pure_

_This is love worth waiting for_

_I need an everlasting love_

_I need a friend and a lover divine_

_An everlasting precious love_

_Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time_

_I need an everlasting love_

_I need a friend and a lover divine_

_An everlasting precious love_

_Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time_

_I need an everlasting love_

_I need a friend and a lover divine_

_An everlasting precious love_

_Wait for it, wait for it, give it some time_

_I need an everlasting love_

_I need a friend and a lover divine_

_An everlasting precious love_

As soon as Stan was talking to her, Bridget found herself transported to these very white offices with a 1960s Mod design with a sparse amount of people in them, in perhaps the most colorful area in the space where several young men and a woman are gathering together, obvious high as kites but not as hallucinogenic as she was in Thailand. She saw that there was a burly, bearded man with lush light brown hair in a green shirt trying to imitate William Tell and in front of him was a man slightly younger, with very wild black hair and a mustache to match, talking in a loud accent. “Mr. Ginsberg,” Bridget thought and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror wearing a silk-like cotton shocking pink dress with long sleeves and an Edwardian white lace collar with matching cuffs, ending above the knee with tannish nude stockings and yellow kitten heels with her hair mimicking an Ann-Margret do and thick lashes before catching sight of the woman next to young Mr. Ginsberg: not devastatingly beautiful, but pretty (perhaps cute and darling if less dolled up) with clear and dewy skin and a neat brown bob with a black shift sheathing her petite figure. She can hear the worry in young Peggy’s voice as she starts to shield her blue eyes, only to respond in shock when the pencil inevitably stabbed Stan Rizzo on the hand, Bridget followed them to a small, dark room where Peggy bandages his hand and Stan pulls her into a kiss, while she resists (not at all strongly) that she has a boyfriend and he then confesses that his cousin Robbie died months before and he has been numbing himself. She hears Peggy telling him he needs to own his pain and not numb himself, she herself felt great pain; a pain that would be emphasized as Bridget followed the brunette down the hall after meeting with the handsome Don Draper where a seedy man in a grey suit and glasses (“Related to Uncle Geoffrey?” wondered Bridget) pointed to a lit room where Peggy and Bridget clearly saw Stan, high as a kite, with a hippie in her late teens, also high, at it like rabbits and Peggy stomped away home in anger. Bridget faces Stan Rizzo who grows a bit chubbier, his hair greying, and skin wrinkling with a pair of spectacles at his nose and smirks “You fuckwit.”

As Peggy’s words started sinking in, Mark felt himself transported to a very white office space with genuine offices rather than cubicles and a glass-walled room for a large computer in the center and sees himself reflected with longer sideburns, pointed collars, a light blue shirt, an atrocious tie, still conservative but obviously very much something like Bridget’s boss Richard Finch would wear. “This is her favorite thing, she loves it”, he hears one woman’s voice says and another woman say “And I bet you love cashing her checks” sounding slightly younger than the former. He tries to act natural as a young, blonde secretary in a girlish look that reminds him of Patchouli at Bridget’s workplace, walks by but the young woman barely noticed his presence as he looked to the office where the two women were arguing, in front of a long haired woman in a lurid ensemble including red hip huggers and a red haired woman in a neat ensemble and two young children, were two young people. The young man was in his early to mid-30s, tall, broad with a thick waist, with long and lush light brown hair and a bushy beard to match and next to him was a petite brunette with vivid blue eyes and an angry expression on her porcelain visage and then he felt time pass into the evening where the two discussed a slight thrown by the older woman to the younger, he then realized this was Stan and Peggy when they were young. Oddly for a young woman angry at what the other woman said, she did not hold with Stan implying the other woman was a poor maternal figure or that his own was inadequate herself because “Maybe she was very young and followed her heart and got in trouble. And no one should have to make a mistake just like a man does and not be able to move on. She should be able to live the rest of her life just like a man does”, he saw Peggy was trying not to cry and Stan, not an idiot or emotionally constipated, asked what she did realizing she suffered that shame and made a choice to move on with her life. She felt better and then left to focus on her work and Mark felt a shift to the next morning where Stan was in his office laying on a sofa having nothing more than scotch for breakfast while drawing and talking to Peggy on the phone, he walked down the hall, past a leggy secretary with an afro and stylish (even for that time) attire, into Peggy’s office where she was on the phone and asked Stan if he’d follow her into McCann-Erickson and asks if they can be on the phone despite nothing said. He finds himself transported back, watching Peggy grow older with more lines and wrinkles and gray hair, a softer look and more wiser with a fuller face and joked “Oh yes, you fucking wanted him” to her delight.

At last the couples started dining as soon as Becky and Joyce brought Bridget’s and Mark’s son with their little girl. “My mummy kissed daddy in the snow with her trainers and underwear on,” said the Darcy son while Peggy remarked “Mr. Stan here left me hanging on the phone like a lunatic asking for him while he ran to my office and then we kissed.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The song the fanfic and title is adapted from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWPhbwYQlB0  
> Originated from my earlier fanart http://toongrrl.deviantart.com/art/A-Friend-and-A-Lover-Divine-582451169  
> "I wanna stand and salute that" Pete Campbell ("Babylon" Season One)


End file.
